Searches for motivation continue after a mosque in southern France killed a Muslim worshipper, and the prosecutor’s office considered whether the motive for the attack was Islamophobia.
Police continue to search for the perpetrator, said to be a French man in his 20s who stabbed young admirers at the Grand Ca mosque north of Montpellier, up to 50 times on Friday morning.
Le Parisien reported that he photographed the victim with his cell phone and cited a source familiar with the investigation.
The man reportedly shouted insults to Allah during the attack.
Surveillance cameras of the mosque filmed the attack. At that time, the victim and the perpetrator were alone in the building, and it was not until mid-morning that other visitors found the body.
The suspect is still running away.
French media reported that in terms of his motivation, all assumptions were taken into account, including the motivations of “racists and Islamophobia.”
Prosecutors said the priority is to seize the so-called perpetrator as soon as possible.
The suspect was considered to be extremely dangerous because he made a confused statement on the video, indicating that he intends to take action again.
“Racism and hatred based on religion will never have a place in France,” French President Emmanuel Macron wrote on X on Sunday.
Earlier, French Prime Minister François Bayrou condemned the attack, calling it a “crime of Islamic terror” in a post on Saturday night X.
He wrote: “We stand with the victim’s loved ones and shocked believers and stressed that the authorities are doing everything they can to find and punish the perpetrators.
Attorney General Gérald Darmanin wrote, “an indescribable act in a sacred religious building.”
